


Minecraft, But Every Time I Take Damage, My IQ Goes Down.

by rosetalon



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25106956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosetalon/pseuds/rosetalon
Summary: What would happen if Dream lost one of his most powerful weapons--his incredible genius?Dream takes on a peculiar Minecraft challenge that goes terribly wrong, and it’s up to George to help him slay the Ender Dragon before Dream’s in-game injuries kill him in real life. Mostly angst with some very emotional scenes. Not specifically romantic, but it can be interpreted that way. Primarily highlights their close friendship and fear of what they’d do without each other.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 197
Kudos: 411





	1. Chapter 1

Minecraft, but every time I take damage, my IQ goes down.

What an absurd concept for a video. Dream’s pretty sure that he and his friends had joked about such an idea in the past, but none of them believed it was actually possible. This changed when Dream received a strange package in his PO box, one which contained a specific set of instructions and a peculiar device.

The thing looked like some sort of headband, with wires attached to an arduino. Dream felt a sense of unease holding it in his hands, delicately running his fingers along its cold metal frame. According to the printed letter accompanying the device, which Dream read over as he held the headband, it is capable of lowering the user’s intelligence every time they take damage in Minecraft. Once they beat the Ender Dragon, their mind will be fully restored. Following are a set of instructions on setting the device up, and, after that, a challenge. The writer of the letter challenges Dream to beat Minecraft with this device, just as George had attempted to beat Minecraft with a shocking mechanism on his arm. George can help him, of course, but Dream must be the one to beat the game. At the end of the letter, almost missed by Dream’s skimming, is a claim that if Dream is able to accomplish such a thing, they will pay Dream five thousand dollars. Along with it, a signature, and a place for Dream to sign.

Dream sets the headband down on his counter, with care. Being the curious man he is, he yearns to understand how such a device works. And, being the intrepid man he is, he finds himself very tempted indeed by the anonymous challenge. He’s beaten Minecraft dozens of times, often hardly taking any damage at all, and with George there to help him? He could win those five thousand dollars for sure. Although, he’s hesitant. If that device really can do what its inventor claims it can do, things could get very dangerous, very quickly.

After many minutes of pondering, and a few more cleaning up the packaging from his fan mail, Dream calls up George. If he’s really going to go through with this, he’s going to need George’s say on the matter.

“George,” Dream begins, simply, as soon as George answers the Discord call.

“Yeah? What do you want,” responds George, a hint of accusation in his voice. His attitude is not due to any sour mood at all; playful aggression is a staple component to their close friendship.

“I have a new video idea.”

“Okay? And…what is it?”

Dream clears his throat, then delivers his pitch, in his YouTube intro voice. “Minecraft, but every time I take damage, my IQ goes down.”

There’s a pause, a familiar pause, which occurs whenever George has to take time to process the insane shit Dream says sometimes.

“Uh… Yeah, right. That’s not possible.” There’s a hint of laughter in George’s voice as he dismisses Dream’s idea.

“Well, you don’t know that.”

“You’re kidding. We’re not going to do that. How would we even pull that off?”

“Funny you ask that, George, because I actually...received a very special gift from one of my fans in the mail today.”

“Oh, no…”

“It’s some sort of headband, thing? And the note that’s attached to it says that it will, like...lower my IQ or something every time I take damage.” Dream can’t help but chuckle as he talks, at the absurdity of the concept. “Apparently, if I can complete the challenge, with you there helping me, they will pay me five THOUSAND dollars. That’s insane!”

George has to stop Dream there. “Okay, well. How do we know this weird...device, headband thing even works? You can’t just go...slipping on every strange machine you get sent in the mail by somebody claiming to pay you five grand, Dream.”

“Why can’t I?”

“Dream, what if it’s, like, a bomb or something?”

This makes Dream laugh. “George, it’s not a bomb. Come on. It doesn’t even look like a bomb. I think it’s legit.”

George is silent. He doesn’t like where this is headed. If Dream sets his heart on something, it’s difficult to convince him otherwise.

“I’m really genuinely curious to see if this thing works or not. We can just...try the challenge, and if anything goes wrong, or if it doesn’t work, I can just take it off and be done with it.”

“Okay, but...if it uh, does work, what will even happen? You’ll just like...be stupid? Or…” George trails off.

Dream laughs again. “I guess so. Maybe. Let’s find out, George. Come on, it’ll be safe, I promise.”

George lets out a resigned sigh. “Okay, well, I guess there’s no stopping you. I can’t believe you’d just like...be okay with that thing messing with your head like that. You’re crazy.”

“Hah, maybe,” Dream responds, a bit of laughter still in his voice. He makes a plan with George to start recording in an hour, giving them both enough time to eat beforehand. He can’t help but keep thinking back to the strange device. Will it actually work? If it does, what will it be like? Will he be able to beat the challenge, and make five thousand dollars? Or will putting that thing on his head be the worst mistake he’s made in his life?


	2. Chapter 2

The time to record has come. Dream gets George in a call, then gets to work setting up the device. He slips the metal headband over his dirty-blonde hair, brushing his bangs out of the way. He plugs it all in and opens Minecraft, loading his recording server and the plug-in required for the device to work. George joins the game shortly after.

Dream hangs in the air, still flying, still in creative mode. Now that he’s here, with the device on his head and everything ready to go, he’s nervous. What has he gotten himself into? He’s sure of his skill, and certain that he and his friend will be able to complete this challenge, but…he thinks back to George’s attempt at beating the game with the shocking device on, how genuine George’s screams sounded when his arm was electrocuted at every misstep. He recalls how serious protecting George felt, how he got an adrenaline rush every time he had to save George from an approaching zombie, as if he was legitimately protecting his friend’s life. He shifts his mouse, moving his view to George’s player model, who is sitting there patiently as Dream gets ready to record. Is he going to be putting George through that same dire fear?

But it’s fine, Dream reminds himself. They can always just stop the challenge if things get out of hand. He can take the gadget off, he can log off, he can even just go into creative mode. It’ll be fine. Dream attempts to calm his nerves, cracking his knuckles before setting his hands back down on his keyboard. He clicks the record button.

“Okay, George, I’m recording,” Dream announces, lowering himself to the ground.

“Alright, great,” George responds, attempting to punch Dream right off the bat. Of course, this does nothing, as Dream is still in creative mode. “What the heck? Get out of creative mode, that’s cheating.”

“George! You can’t just, go around smacking me, you remember how mad you got when I punched you and you get shocked?”

“Yeah, yeah, but, we need to test it, don’t we?”

Dream pauses. “Oh, yeah, you’re right, huh.” He carefully sets himself to survival mode. The challenge begins. “Uh, okay, hit me, but, like, just once, haha.”

Once he’s given the go-ahead, George clicks on Dream’s bright-green player model. Dream exclaims in surprise. He isn’t met with an incredible, brutal pain like George had been, rather he experiences a sudden, sharp pain in his head. It’s gone after a second, and it doesn’t ache much, but the sharp stinging was enough to catch him off guard. He doesn’t feel any different, afterwards, as it was merely the first punch, so the change is hard to notice.

“George!”

“What! You told me to. Are you okay? Are you stupid now, Dream?” George laughs. At least he’s having fun with it, now, teasing Dream, rather than being as uneasy about it as he was before.

“No, I’m not--that’s not how it works, George. I’d have to take a lot of damage for it to be noticeable, probably.”

“But does it work?”

Dream considers the sharp pain he had felt. He doesn’t feel different now, but as far as he knows, it works. “Yes.”

“Okay, so I should just punch you more, then?”

“No!” With that, Dream starts running away. He laughs, George laughs. The two start punching trees, making tools, getting cobblestone. The beginning of a Minecraft world is always so rhythmic, so predictable, so peaceful. It’s hard to remember that they’re doing a challenge as their friendly conversation diverges into jokes and hypotheticals. It’s only when night hits that tensions begin to rise once more.

“Oh, we need to make shelter, Dream,” George reminds him, slowing down and stopping in a field.

“Right, yeah,” Dream responds. He had just about forgotten about the challenge, and about the cold metal band around his head. With George’s help, he starts constructing a shabby dirt shack, closing off the entrance and setting down a furnace. They begin to cook some food.

“Agh, I wish we had gotten sheep, then we could just sleep this night away. Now we have to sit here all night,” George complains.

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad, George. It’s pretty cozy in here, to be honest. Just the two of us.” Dream’s voice has that playful sound to it that George knows all too well. Though George knows Dream is joking, he can’t help but get embarrassed.

“Hah, yeah, it’s pretty comfortable…” George trails off. He doesn’t want to incite Dream’s flirtatious shenanigans any further. He pulls some cooked steak out of the furnace, munching it down. Minutes pass. “I guess I should go mine down, and um, look for iron and stuff.”

“Okay, I’ll come with you,” offers Dream, heading down after George’s spiral staircase into the dirt, holding a torch to light their way.

“Careful, Dream. I don’t want to dig into a lava pool and have you, like, burn to a crisp or something.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine.”

The night yields a pitiful amount of resources. George brings the coal and iron back up to their furnace, emptying it of food and getting started making the two some buckets, shields, and swords.

“I can’t believe I couldn’t find a single cave,” George scoffs as he equips his shield. “Whatever, it’s daytime now, we can go find a cave out there. Or a village.” As Dream breaks open the dirt encasement, George grabs the furnace and crafting table. “Oh--Dream, look out!”

As soon as Dream stepped out into the open field, a creeper came around the side of their house. George’s warning was pointless, though, as Dream’s quick reaction-time resulted in him blocking his shield before the creeper could even pose a threat. Dream laughs as the creeper explodes, dealing no damage. “George, it’s fine. I have a shield!”

“No, Dream, look OUT,” George shouts. Dream turns around in time to see a second creeper, right behind him. Dream yells, startled, jumping away from the mob as George runs towards it, punching it away from Dream. The explosion nearly kills George, and deals three hearts of damage to Dream. That sharp pain returns, causing Dream to clench his mouse a bit more tightly.

“Dream, are you okay? You’re actually an idiot. You can’t just go jumping out into broad daylight after the night ends! There are creepers! And spiders! You have to be more careful, Dream, seriously.” George’s chastising of Dream comes only from a place of concern, as he just wants Dream to stay safe. However, Dream hardly pays attention to what George is saying, as he’s still trying to recover from the sudden pain in his head. It hurts, but it’s still merely the beginning, and Dream doesn’t feel too different once the pain fades.

“Okay, yeah, sorry,” Dream responds, still trying to get his bearings. “Man, that is just the weirdest feeling. It’s like a really sharp headache, but it goes away pretty much immediately.”

“Sounds rough. Try not to get blown up by any more creepers, then.”

“Yeah, I’ll do my best, haha.” And so, they sprint off towards the horizon, away from the dirt hut and the two creeper craters in the grass. They continue onward, in search of a village, or anything else that will help them in their quest. The first night was easy, but things are about to get much, much harder.


	3. Chapter 3

The duo make their way across the plains, slaying every animal in their path. In no time, they acquire beds, and it is thanks to this that they are able to avoid nights, and thus most danger on the surface. Underground, though, is another story. George leads the way as they trek carefully into a large cavern, quickly mining whatever coal and iron they can reach. Dream narrowly manages to block a creeper's explosion, fends off zombies as George crafts armor for the two of them, and even kills a skeleton without getting hit. Despite Dream's skill and courage, though, playing Minecraft without taking damage is not an easy task. A miscalculated jump here, a stray skeleton's arrow there, and an ambush from an enemy spider--with all of these little losses of health building upon one another, Dream is eventually able to detect a difference.

Dream had shouted in alarm when a spider dropped from the ceiling right on top of him, alerting a nearby George. George spun around and hurried over to where Dream was attacked, clicking the spider until it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Now safe, Dream eats a cooked pork chop, to regain his lost hearts.

"Be careful, Dream," George insists, a degree of concern in his voice. "That thing could have killed you. You were lucky I was here to defend you." George is teasing Dream, of course--Dream could have easily beaten the spider on his own.

Dream doesn't pay attention to George, though, as he is recovering from the damage dealt to his mind. The pain begins to fade, though this time it feels different. Now, he's taken enough damage that he can tell that things in his head aren't exactly how they were before.

Lifting his Minecraft character's head up to look at George, Dream speaks. "George, I… Woah." Dream laughs a little, in disbelief. "George, I think this thing really does work. I feel different. It's… it's weird."

"What," George responds, "Are you stupid now? Jeez, it took long enough." George is still teasing him, partly for the humor of it, and partly to get worry out of his own mind.

"No, well," Dream hesitates. "Not--not really. I don't know. I don't think I'm stupid, I just feel different."

"Okay, great, then let's hurry up and get out of this cave. We only really need full iron, anyway," George suggests. "Come on. Grab the furnaces, and let's go."

"Okay," Dream mumbles, doing as he's told and following George out of the cave.

The cave is winding, and the path is uncertain. Giving up on searching, George decides to dig up to the surface. He has enough sense not to dig straight up with Dream there beside him, so he makes a staircase. Sand falls from the hole in the ceiling, and once George mines it away, water floods their staircase.

"Oh," George exclaims. "We're in an ocean. Come on, Dream, let's swim up." With that, he swims out of their staircase, and into the deep blue water. "Come on... come on…" George nears the surface. "Yes!" Joyous, George avoids taking any damage from drowning.

"Dream, where are you, I've already--" Panic grips George's chest when he looks down. Dream is still down there. He's not swimming up, he's just sitting there, underwater, looking around at the kelp and fish.

"It's so pretty down here, George," Dream answers.

"Dream! This is not the time for sight-seeing! Get up! Swim up! SWIM UP!" George is screaming at Dream. He knows that if Dream stays down there any longer, he'll drown.

"Ah! Okay! Okay!" Dream starts swimming. But he got such a late start, it doesn't matter--he begins to drown halfway to the surface. The sharp pain returns, rhythmic, synced with the slow but steady damage he's taking due to being unable to breathe. It's hard to keep his hands steady on his keyboard, but, somehow, he makes it to the surface.

"Yes, yes! Oh, God, I was on, half a…" Dream trails off, letting out a slight groan. His head hurts so badly that he has to take a moment to shut his eyes and endure it.

Meanwhile, George is throwing steaks at him. "Eat, then! Eat it! I can't believe you'd--what were you thinking! Sitting at the bottom of the ocean, like a, like some kind of, merman, or something." George huffs. He's going to have to get used to berating Dream for making poor decisions.

Dream opens his eyes, his thumb still pressed firmly on the space bar to keep himself afloat. As always, the pain dissipates. He lifts his hand off of his mouse, to rub his head. The metal device is warm, now, and his fingers are cold. He returns his hand to his mouse, and, slowly, navigates to the steak in his hot bar and eats it.

"Let's get out of the ocean," Dream says, his voice quiet. "I don't like it here. My head hurts so bad, George."

George hesitates for a moment, looking at Dream, considering what he had just gone through. He decides to give up on scolding him, and focus on getting onto land.

"Okay, right. Let's swim this way. The shore isn't too far. That's where we were, when we found the cave. We just ended up under a stupid ocean," George states, beginning to swim towards land.

George is silent as he swims, but eventually Dream starts to laugh quietly.

"What, what's so funny, Dream?"

"The," Dream responds, laughing again. "The dolphins. Look at them, George. There's dolphins. They're all swimming around me." Dream dunks under the water, swimming, and the dolphins swim with him. He shoots past George, who has to try to catch up. This just makes Dream laugh more.

"Aw, what? No fair. You have like, six dolphins and I have NONE. You need to share your dolphins, Dream." Despite his attitude, this amuses George.

Dream arrives on shore, wheezing with laughter as George crawls out of the water after him.

"It's really not that funny, Dream."

"Yes, yes it is, did you see how many there were? A lot of dolphins!" He breaks the grass around him, jumping around idly.

"Okay, well, I'm glad you had your fun," says George. "Um… which way should we go?"

Instinctively, Dream opens his F3 menu, displaying statistics such as coordinates, light levels, and more. It is a shocking realization to Dream that he has no idea what any of these numbers mean.

He stops jumping. "Uh… Woah."

"What? What is it?"

"All of these… numbers. George, I don't…" Dream used to know what just about everything in this menu meant. At the very least, he should be able to figure out the coordinates, right? That's the easiest one, the one that he uses the most. And he does, he figures out which numbers translate to their location. But he knows there's more to it than that. Something about...a minimum distance from spawn for strongholds to spawn? Sure, they haven't gone to the Nether yet, but it's worth it to at least head in the right direction. But as he turns around, watching the dozens of numbers change arbitrarily, "Uh," he just can't figure it out. His fingers trembling, he closes the F3 menu.

"What, Dream? What's wrong?"

"I don't... understand it."

"Understand what?"

"The menu. The numbers menu. With all the numbers, and the coordinates. I don't know where to go."

"Oh." George considers this. "Then... let's just go in a random direction, I guess." The device really is working, if Dream can't figure out the F3 menu. Memories of burning to blazes, of falling from high places, of getting bombarded by zombies, return to George. How much more damage will Dream endure? How much worse will it get? When will they be forced to give up on the challenge, because Dream can't go any further?

Not yet. They don't have to give up yet.


	4. Chapter 4

“A village! Haha, yes!” Dream laughs, joyous, as he and his friend approach a village. They’re in a plains biome, and the village is fairly large. They get to work looting chests, grabbing beds, harvesting wheat.

“Oh, sweet.” George hasn’t been talking quite as much as he usually does. This is because, in all honesty, the way Dream’s acting is starting to weird him out. It’s not normal for Dream to respond so simply to things. Usually, their banter can continue on forever, with Dream’s imaginative responses making conversation with him a blast. But right now, all he’s talking about is what he’s doing in the game. Makes sense, George supposes, as it’s important for Dream to concentrate on not getting hurt.

But Dream’s doing a lousy job at that.

“Ahh! George!” Dream starts shouting, genuine fear in his voice. He had started attacking the iron golem of the village, but he had forgotten to tower up. Now he’s being tossed in the air, landing hard on the ground. Iron golems are no joke--they deal a lot of damage, and adding fall damage on top of that makes them a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully, they're slow, and Dream is able to run away from it in time for George to take care of it.

"Stupid thing only dropped four iron," George mutters, returning his attention to Dream. He sighs. "That thing must have really hurt, huh. You need to be more careful, Dream. Just… don't go running off like that."

Dream puts a hand to his head, enduring the pain. "Yeah," he mutters. "I know. I thought I could kill it. Forgot to tower up."

"Yes, well. Just be safer."

Dream doesn't respond. Instead, he keeps looting the village. He right clicks on one of the villagers, to trade. He remembers how he used to have this system, where he would blow up houses, make sticks, trade with villagers, and end up with a load of arrows and ender pearls. But as he clicks on a couple villagers, now, the trading mechanic baffles him.

"Wheat for emerald… Emerald for bread… Rotten flesh for emerald… Emerald for pork chop…," Dream reads out the trades, as if he's trying to figure something out. He doesn't understand why different villagers have different trades.

"Yeah, villagers, right. We need to get sticks and trade it with a fletcher, then trade with a cleric to get pearls," George explains. "But we can't do that right now, because there's no church in this village, so we'd need a brewing stand, and we need blaze rods to do it."

That process sounds familiar to Dream, but the explanation just confuses him more. 

"Wh...whatever, yeah, let's just do it later."

"For now I guess we need to find a lava pool. I'm sure there's one nearby…" George takes a screenshot of the village coordinates, then takes off running. "Come on, Dream."

Dream looks around to locate George, then continues after him. The two run around for a little while, killing animals for food on the way. Dream had attempted to use a flint and steel to light a cow on fire, to get it to drop cooked steak, but lit himself on fire instead. George had to douse him in water, and revoked his flint and steel privileges. Finally, they arrived at a lava pool.

"I'll do it," asserts Dream, as soon as they come close. He's beginning to get sick of this. He's always been prideful of his immense skill, as it had taken countless hours of practice to get to where he is. To continue making such simple mistakes, to forget how to accomplish the tasks he had spent many speedruns perfecting--he's getting sick of it. It's embarrassing. He's always been great at building the portal out of a lava pool, so he's going to do it, now, to prove to George, and to himself, that he's not useless.

George is uneasy. "Okay, well, don't fall in, whatever you do. I'll...be waiting here with a water bucket, in case you do."

"I'm not going to fall in." Dream places his water on the edge of the pool, mining the block beside it. His foundation is made.

"Okay, whatever you say." As Dream starts placing cobblestone outside of the pool, George notices that he's doing it wrong. "Um, no, Dream, it's like an upside down L shape. Not whatever you're doing, haha."

"I know how to do it," Dream reaffirms. He fixes the cobblestone structure, then places the water. Somehow, it doesn't spill out over the edge. "Yes!" Dream starts scooping up buckets of lava, placing them carefully. Admittedly, this is much harder than he remembers it being.

The most common mistake while making a portal like this is placing the water in such a way that the top left corner doesn't turn to obsidian. This happens for Dream, but he doesn't scoop the lava back up, he just stares at it.

"Why isn't it…" Then, the lava begins to flow down on him, turning the running water behind it to cobblestone. "Ah!" Dream jumps back, to avoid the falling lava, landing right in the lava pool behind him. Searing pain hits his head once more, and he grits his teeth as he tries to stay at the top of the lava. "George!"

George shouts when Dream jumps into the lava pool. He has to jump in after him, in order to place water on the obsidian to douse the whole pool. The fire burning Dream is extinguished, but he's still in pain.

"Dream! You literally just jumped into the lava! What is wrong with you!" George is angry, but only because he's afraid for Dream. "You could have died! Dream, I knew I shouldn't have let you build the portal."

"No, I can." Dream's voice is weak, as if he's still in pain. Which he is, but proving to George that he can still build the portal is more important. He eats a cooked steak to heal as he inspects the portal again. The improperly placed lava is still flowing out of the top of it, alongside the water which has now gone everywhere. There's cobblestone all over the place, and the whole thing is a mess. What's worst of all is the fact that the massive amounts of damage he took in the lava pool has hurt his mind to the point where he doesn't know what to do to fix this portal. It just looks like a heap of rubble, it's ruined, he doesn't know what to do. He would like to start again, to build a new portal, but looking around he sees that almost all of the lava was turned to obsidian when George rescued him. Dream hits his hand on his desk. This isn't fun anymore.

"Dream?" George's aggressive tone becomes soft almost instantly, as he fears that he may have upset Dream. Then, he hears a faint noise. "Dream, are you...crying?"

"Yes, I am, George," says Dream. He wipes his eyes. "I hate this. I don't want to do this challenge anymore. My head hurts. I don't understand. I don't want to do it. I hate it. I hate it."

"Woah, okay, Dream, calm down, it's okay," George says, trying to get him to stop crying. "We can stop. It's okay. We don't have to do this challenge anymore. Just take that device off, we'll scrap the video, it's alright."

"Okay," Dream mumbles. Just take the device off, right. He turns it off, first, then puts his hands to his head and gently lifts the headband off of it. He sets the device on his desk, then waits.

An incredible sense of dread works its way up into his chest, and he is filled with fear.

"George."

"Yeah Dream? You took it off, right?" George is unnerved by Dream's suddenly serious tone.

"George. I took it off. I don't. It didn't."

"What, Dream? What are you talking about?"

"It didn't do anything!"

"What do you mean, it didn't do anything? Are you still…"

"Yes! I'm still stupid, George!"

"Oh, no."


	5. Chapter 5

“What are we going to do, Dream…?” George is quiet. He has this horrible feeling in his gut. All this time, they were playing Minecraft as if it were some fun challenge, when in reality Dream was being seriously hurt. Such fools they were, to trust a suspicious device sent by a stranger.

“I don’t know,” mutters Dream. He sounds like he’s still crying. He’s been playing for well over an hour, his head is hurting immensely, and he’s terribly afraid of what’s to come.

“I can’t keep playing tonight, George,” he admits, taking his hands off the keyboard and putting them on his head. “I can’t.”

“N...no, Dream, we have to keep going. We’re so close. We just need to go to the Nether, and find the End portal, and…” Suddenly, beating the game feels like it’s hours away.

“No, I can’t. I won’t. My head hurts.” Dream rubs his eyes. He wants to go to sleep. He’s so tired. It’s the middle of the afternoon, but his sleep schedule was never very sensible to begin with. “I’m going to bed.”

“What! Dream, no! You can’t just--leave me here! Am I supposed to just spend the next 12 hours waiting while you nap it off? I’ll worry to death!” George isn’t kidding. He’s quite genuine, in fact. He’s so worried for Dream, he won’t be able to sleep at all tonight. “Can we please, please keep trying? I just want to--I just want to get this over with.”

“No. I’m going to bed, George. My head hurts.” Dream shakes his head. He’ll do better in the morning, right? He’ll be well-rested, and maybe his mind will be restored after a good night’s rest. Probably not, but it’s worth trying. 

“Dream! No! We need to keep playing! We need to--”

“Goodnight, George.”

Dream leaves the call. He disconnects from the server. He feels bad for abandoning George, but he really, really needs to sleep. His head is spinning as he stands. He climbs into his bed, fully-clothed, and passes out.

George stares at his computer screen, frozen. What is he meant to do? He has no choice but to log off of Minecraft. Sighing, he opens up Twitter, scrolling through the endless tweets, hoping to distract himself from the worry in his mind. But no matter how many pointless status updates or aesthetic edits of his face he sees, he can’t take his mind off of Dream. Will beating the game even fix him? What happens if they can’t beat the challenge? If they reach a point where Dream takes so much damage, he can’t play the game anymore, what will they do?. George shudders just thinking about it. The true weight of the situation is beginning to dawn on him. Dream’s life is on the line. It’s not just a fun challenge anymore, it’s some kind of psychopath life-or-death game that they’ve been dragged into. It’s almost too much for George to handle.

Twitter is giving him a headache. It’s late, he should really go to bed. He can’t just sleep, knowing Dream may never be the same again, and that tomorrow they’ll have to wake up and keep at the horrible challenge that could very well kill his friend. Still, trying to sleep is better than sitting here hunched over at his desk. He gets up, brushes his teeth, and gets into his bed. He spends the whole night restless, worrying over the state of his dear friend.

George flinches awake from his dreamless sleep, his mind wrenching him from unconsciousness as soon as he begins to think of Dream once more. He sits up in his bed, his heart pounding. That all wasn’t a dream, was it? Did it really happen? George frowns, picking up his phone. It’s morning, but it feels like he only slept for an hour. He sends a text to Dream.

“Good morning.”

He waits, and, no response. Dream must still be sleeping. George sighs, the heavy weight on his chest refusing to leave. He’s quite worried, but his stomach is aching with hunger. He ignores his body’s desire for food for as long as he can, scrolling through Twitter, reading all of the silly tweets the Dream Team’s fans make. Their fans have no idea that this has happened. As far as they know, Dream is perfectly fine. Nobody knows, nobody except for George. Not even Sapnap.

George takes a deep breath. He should probably tell Sapnap about what happened, but he’s just...too busy worrying. He doesn’t have the energy to explain the situation. So, he doesn’t. Instead, he slides a few slices of bread into the toaster and scrambles some eggs. He plates up his meal, sitting down at his kitchen table, when his phone starts buzzing. He sets down his plate and picks up his phone, his heart beating faster once again. It’s from Dream.

“good morning”

It’s common for Dream to omit punctuation and capitalization in texts, so George can’t tell right away if the headband’s effects are still in place--or even if any of it actually happened.

“How do you feel, Dream?” A strange question to ask, but George wants to cut straight to the point.

“im ok”

“Do you still feel weird? From last night?”

Dream responds with a single question mark.

“The headband. The challenge we did. Was that real? Are you still hurt?”

“oh.”

The events of the prior night return to Dream’s memory. He had messaged George as soon as he woke up, and he had written off the fog in his head as sleepiness. However, now that George has reminded him of what happened, his heart sinks.

“i am still hurt, yes.”

Fuck. George was desperately hoping that was all just some ridiculous nightmare. He sighs, stirring his scrambled eggs with his fork. He shoves some in his mouth, responding to Dream’s text.

“That sucks. I guess we need to finish that challenge after all.”

“i guess”

George puts his phone back down on the table, focusing instead on his breakfast. Damn, this sucks. Never before has a Minecraft challenge felt like such an insurmountable task. Sure, there have been hard challenges, ones which infuriated him and wasted his time, but this time it’s serious. He’s not just playing a game, he’s fighting for Dream’s life. He takes his dishes to the sink, rinsing them, then chugging a glass of water. He’s shaky with anxiousness as he heads back to his room.

Rather than sitting at his desk, George lays down on his bed. He’s exhausted, he’s short on sleep, and he’s deathly afraid of what will happen. He’s laying there, staring at the ceiling, when suddenly his phone starts buzzing. He picks it up. Dream is calling him, but...it’s not over Discord. It’s over FaceTime.

“I swear to God, if you’re messing around with me right now…,” George mutters under his breath before answering the call.

It’s Dream. There’s no finger covering the camera, there’s no funny editing tricks made to hide his face. That’s Dream, the real Dream, whose face George has never seen before. George’s mouth is left open in shock.

“D...Dream? Is that you? Why are you…”

“Hi, George,” says Dream, who is smiling. Though, there’s something sad about his smile. “I thought I’d call you today.”

Dream’s simple way of speaking is an unfriendly reminder of what has happened to him. George looks closer at Dream’s face, inspecting it. He’s handsome, of course, just as George had imagined. Under any other circumstance he would be ecstatic at finally seeing his friend’s face in real life, but…

“George?”

There’s something off about him. George can see it, in Dream’s bright green eyes. Where he had expected to see reflected the cunning and amusement he had grown to adore, there is none. Instead, there’s a strange emptiness, a dullness that doesn’t belong there in those pretty green eyes.

This isn’t right. These shouldn’t be the conditions under which George finally gets to see Dream’s face. They should be laughing together, or bargaining with one another, or even meeting up in person. There should be some sort of excitement to it. It shouldn’t be some random FaceTime out of nowhere, by a Dream who can’t even build a nether portal. If Dream were himself, he wouldn’t have revealed his face. George begins to feel anger rising in his chest, at the opportunity robbed from him. This shell of his best friend just took the most special moment they could have had together away from them, all because he was too stupid to think twice before--

“George, please!”

Dream looks worried, he looks afraid. George had gone silent at seeing his face, then began to develop a facial expression of intense resentment. At Dream’s plea, George realized the scowl he was making, and rubs his face, muttering an apology. He takes another look at Dream.

Dream’s eyes may be dull, but they’re filled to the brim with sincerity. Dream may not understand what he’s done, by soiling his face reveal, but there’s no use in getting mad at him for it. It’s not his fault.

It is then that George reconsiders the situation. If Dream gets hurt one too many times, he could be gone forever. Maybe Dream has realized this. Maybe, whether he’s aware of it or not, Dream decided to video call George today because it could very well be the last time he is able to. Judging by the despair in that smile he had, by the desperate furrowing of his eyebrows, by the slight crack in his voice...Dream knows.

“I’m...sorry, Dream, really, for uh...being weird for a second there. I’m okay, now.” George sounds guilty. He feels guilty, for getting so mad at Dream. It is still Dream, after all. “Um...Yeah, wow, this is your face, huh? Man…” If things were normal, George would probably make fun of Dream and call him ugly, but he’s not so sure if the Dream who he’s currently speaking to would understand a joke like that. So, he tells the truth. “You’re really, uh, really handsome Dream. All those kids who draw you like an anime character were right, haha.”

A smile returns to Dream’s face. “Yeah? Thanks, George. You’re handsome too. Really really handsome.” Dream laughs, in that way that he does when he’s teasing George, but his voice is sincere.

George mulls over his thoughts for a moment. If this really could be the last time he sees Dream…

George swallows. “Dream? I, uh, have something I should tell you.”

“Yeah?”

“I…” It’s hard to do over voice call, and it’s even harder to do over video call. How is he supposed to do this, to stare right into Dream’s pretty face and tell him those four words he’d been begging to hear? “I… It’s… Haha, um.”

Dream waits, patient, still smiling.

“I… love you, Dream.” There, he said it. George lets out a shaky breath, rubbing his mouth with his hand in an attempt to hide his smile.

“Wh… Hey! You said it!” Dream sounds and looks so happy. “Yes!” He laughs and exclaims in triumph.

But George isn’t done yet. “You...uh...you’re an amazing person, and, you mean so much to me, and… I just couldn’t say it sooner, because I’m, I don’t know. Embarrassed.” George takes a deep breath. “I just… I love you a lot, Dream, you’re very dear to me, and I will… I will do whatever it takes to make sure that… that you get out of this. Everything will turn out fine, because, because… I just can’t imagine living without you. Okay?”

Dream has gone quiet, but the happy expression on his face has not gone away. He brings his hand up to his face, to wipe his eyes, his camera getting shaky. Is he crying?

“Yeah,” Dream responds, nodding his head. “Yeah, George, thank you. I love you too, George. I love you a lot.” He lowers his hand from his face, blinking his eyes, smiling into the camera. He gazes into George’s eyes. He’s seen George’s face before, but there’s something much more intimate about video calling. It’s as if, despite the unfathomable distance between them, they’re right there together in the same room. For a little while, Dream can forget about his impending doom, and focus instead on the time he’s spending with George, his heart still swelling from the words George had spoken. Maybe he’s right, and everything will turn out fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to make up for this chapter being a little late, it's twice as long as usual! i thought now would be a good time to thank y'all for all the kudos and comments and for sticking with my fic! it's my first time really posting a fanfic online, and it's so nice to get such positive feedback! so thank yall so much and i look forward to writing more!


	6. Chapter 6

Dream is seated at his computer desk. He’s back in a call with George, trying to prepare himself to continue the challenge.

“I don’t want to, George,” he says, a frown on his face.

“Dream, you don’t have a choice. Just put the headband thing on, and get in the server.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Dream, I don’t care if you don’t want to, you have to. What, are you just going to give up and be stupid forever?”

“No,” Dream stares down at his hands, placed hesitantly on his keyboard. He recalls how difficult it was, playing yesterday, unable to figure out how to build a Nether portal. That was so humiliating. “I just...don’t want to...risk it. If, if I get hurt more, George…” Dream rubs his thumb and forefinger together, anxious. “If I get hurt more, it will be really bad.”

George takes a deep breath. This isn’t easy for him, either. Like Dream, he’s deathly afraid that they’ll lose the challenge, that Dream will end up seriously hurt. But he just doesn’t see any way out of this.

“I know you’re scared, Dream,” George begins, finding it hard to find the words. “I’m scared, too. But remember what I said earlier? I love you, Dream, you’re my best friend, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure we get out of this. Okay? So you just have to...trust me. We can do this.”

George’s words of reassurance give Dream a bit of hope. He reaches over to the metal band on his desk, and, with trembling fingers, slips it onto his head. He turns it on.

“Okay, I’m… I’ve got it on, I’m opening Minecraft,” Dream mumbles, his voice quiet.

“Great, okay, that’s good. We’ve totally got this, Dream. We’ve beat the game dozens of times. We can do this.”

“And think about…” Dream gives a cold chuckle. “Think about how great of a video this’ll be. I better not forget to record.”

This makes George laugh in astonishment. “What, are you actually going to record this? And post it on YouTube? Seriously?”

“Well yeah. It’s the hardest challenge ever.”

“Wow. I bet it’ll get a million likes.”

“That’s so many!”

George laughs, just a little. “Yeah, it is so many, Dream… Okay, are you on the server yet? Hurry up, we need to get this challenge over with already.”

“Yeah, yeah. Got my recording started. I’ll get on now.”

And so, Dream logs back in to their recording server. He’s right there where he was when he left last night, standing on obsidian in front of the Nether portal he couldn’t make. He doesn’t want to look at it, feeling sick at the memory of it.

“It’s fine, Dream, look, I’ll fix the portal.” George starts cleaning up the cobblestone. Dream won’t look at it. “You were only missing one piece, here.” George scoops up some lava, puts it in place, and dumps water on it. He then lights the portal. “There we go!”

Dream looks up at the portal. Oh, that makes sense. He doesn’t know why it was so hard last night.

“Wait, um...are we sure we’re ready to go in? You have enough food, and blocks?” George stops, looking at Dream.

Dream looks at his inventory. Wow, that’s a lot of stuff, in there. It’s a bit overwhelming.

“Um...yes. I have cobblestone, 42, and...6 steak...12 bread…”

“Okay, haha, you don’t have to list everything. You’ve got enough, let’s just....get this over with, I guess.” George heads into the portal, with Dream following after.

“Oh, shoot,” George exclaims as soon as they arrive. “I forgot we’re in 1.16. We need to get gold--we need to get gold armor or else the piglin will start attacking us.”

“Oh,” says Dream. “I have gold. Here.” Dream picks up the gold in his inventory and tosses it to George.

“Sweet! This will be just enough to make boots for the both of us.” George crafts the armor, tossing Dream his.

“Yay, let’s go,” Dream responds, putting his gold boots on. Just in time, too, as a horde of piglin was dangerously close.

“Wait, wait, stop, I have a fantastic idea,” George says. He stops running, and starts mining the Nether’s gold ore.

“What?”

“Trust me on this, I’m a genius,” he says, collecting as much gold as he can.

“Jeez, you don’t need to rub it in.”

George laughs, and Dream laughs as well. Dream jumps around, punching the air, while he waits for George to finish what he’s doing. George has begun trading with the piglin, with all of the gold he could find. He tosses out magma cream, glowstone dust, crying obsidian, until…

“Yes!” George shouts.

“What is it?”

“Oh Dream, I got you something…” George runs over to Dream, then drops it on the ground. A fire resistance potion.

“What is this?”

“What do you mean, what is this? It’s a fire resistance potion. Put it in your hot bar. That way, if you miss one of your insane parkour jumps and fall in the lava, you can drink it, and you won’t die.”

For some reason, this gift really touches Dream, and he sounds incredibly happy when he speaks. “Wow… Thanks, George. That’s really great. I’ll keep it right here.” He places it next to his cobblestone in his hotbar.

Finally, they set out into the Nether. The new Nether is difficult to navigate, and much more dangerous than before. They find a warped forest to pick up some hoglin-repelling mushrooms, for Dream’s safety. They tower around a dangerous basalt deltas biome, and even find themselves crawling through a soulsand valley. They manage to get the Hot Tourist Destinations advancement, which is acquired by visiting every biome in the Nether, before they even find a fortress. The fortress is much harder to find in this update, and it is infuriating.

Their journey is not without risk, of course. The Nether is a highly dangerous place, and each moment they spend in this dimension is another moment of risking Dream getting hurt. It’s always so hard for George to bear, whenever Dream takes damage. He always yells, as if he’s genuinely in pain. Because he is. A ghast fireball here, a toss by a hoglin there...by the time they finally find the fortress, Dream’s head is hurting so much that he can’t help but wince when George shouts in victory at spotting it.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! We found it! What the hell, it took so long to find it, oh my god.” George jumps around. The fortress is in the middle of a lava ocean, which is significantly less than ideal. But with all of their searching, they’ll have to settle with what they’ve got.

“Ow. You’re so loud.” As time has gone on, and the damage Dream has taken has added up, he’s gotten quieter. Mostly, he’s been busy focusing on playing the game, but if he had to admit it...it is starting to become difficult to keep up with what George is saying. He gazes out over the lava ocean at the fortress. He imagines how much damage he could possibly take in that hellish place. With skeletons, zombified piglin, blazes, wither skeletons, and even potentially ghasts, this fortress is probably the single most dangerous place he’ll face in this whole challenge. His stomach turns just thinking about it. Will he make it out of this fortress alive, or will he lose everything?


	7. Chapter 7

George starts with building a bridge of cobblestone from the cliff of netherrack to the looming fortress in the distance. The lava below them is frightening the both of them, and Dream is merely inching along, holding shift the whole time.

“What if there’s a ghast?” Dream asks, looking around.

“If you see a ghast, tell me, and I’ll shoot it, and you’ll run away,” George answers. He has to keep building. As fast as he can, to get them out of this terrifying position.

“Oh. Okay.”

George furrows his eyebrows, concentrating on the bridge. When they first started this challenge, it was harder to tell when the damage Dream took reduced his intelligence. But now that they’ve been at it for so long, and Dream’s been hurt so much, it’s apparent that even now, he’s noticeably different than he was when they entered the Nether. He can only dread what Dream will be like when they leave the Nether. As he gets lost in thought, placing block after block, George realizes how much he misses Dream. The Dream who would banter playfully with him and explain confounding game mechanics, the Dream who would always be ten steps ahead of him and never quite this...quiet. George reminds himself that with every block he places, he’s one step closer to getting that Dream back.

He hits a wall. They’re at the fortress. “Okay, careful, let me mine in…” George breaks into the fortress wall, stepping out into a hallway. “Alright. Come in, Dream, it’s safe in here.”

Dream does as he’s told. “Wow, we made it! Now we need a…” he trails off.

“We need to find a blaze spawner,” George finishes. “Unfortunately this fortress is in the middle of a stupid lava ocean so I doubt there will be any enclosed spawners. We’ll have to find our way up, probably.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” responds Dream. He follows George as he makes his way through the fortress. They find a whole lot of nothing, except a chest with some iron in it. They head up a staircase, onto the outside walkways of the stronghold. In the distance, they can see a blaze spawner, but it will be a dangerous place to fight blaze. It’s their only option, it seems.

At last, they’ve made it to the spawner. Blazes start spawning immediately. Dream helps George slay them, but most of the time he’s cowering from behind his shield. Getting caught on fire is the worst, and luckily Dream manages to only get hit by fireballs a few times before they’ve gotten all the blaze rods they need.

“Okay! Okay, we have enough! Let’s get out of here!” George turns around and starts running down the walkway. Dream follows close behind. There are still blazes out there, and they haven’t stopped firing at them. “Dig! Dig down, let’s get inside the fortress!”

Dream does as instructed. The two drop down, and back into the fortress. Dream runs ahead of George. Even given the circumstances, he’s still able to outrun George. But he makes a wrong turn, and he’s reached a dead end. He shouts as he stops running just in time to avoid falling off of the abruptly-ending passageway and into the lava below.

“Dream, no, go this way!” George shouts directions to Dream, but as soon as Dream tries to return to the crossroads to follow George, a wither skeleton comes around the corner. He had been avoiding these things like the plague, and now he has no choice but to face one.

“George! Help! Wither skeleton!” Dream blocks with his shield, attempting to get in some well-timed attacks, but he ends up getting hit. He grits his teeth to withstand the wither effect. George comes running to Dream’s rescue, as Dream turns to flee to the edge of the walkway.

The wither skeleton is dangerously close to knocking Dream into the lava. Dream turns around to face it, with nowhere else to go. George is there, attacking the wither skeleton, but he hadn’t expected Dream to turn around so suddenly. His sword connects with Dream’s body instead, and the force is enough to knock Dream off.

“Dream!” George screams. He deals the final few blows to the wither skeleton, killing it. “Dream! Dream! Oh my God--drink your potion! Drink your fire resistance potion! Drink it, Dream! Drink!”

Dream had yelled in pain and shock when George knocked him off, his head met with a sharp stabbing pain. He didn’t have the reaction time to switch to his fire resistance potion mid-fall, so it’s not until he’s just hit the lava’s surface that he starts drinking it. He grunts in pain, his jaw tightly clenched, as he is brought down to half a heart by the lava that is filling his screen.

He makes it. Dream manages to drink the potion just in time to save himself from death. However, he doesn’t holler in victory. He’s completely silent, except for a small groan. George can tell that Dream survived the fall, as his death message hasn’t shown up yet. But Dream’s screaming, and then the groaning...George is hesitant to declare this a victory.

“Dream? Y-You’re alive? Oh my God.” George stares down, zooming in on the lava where Dream fell. He can see Dream’s name tag below the lava. “You made it. Ohhh my God. I can’t believe I-I hit you.” George’s hands are shaking. “I can’t believe it. You need to be more careful, Dream, I…” He reconsiders. “We need to be more careful. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry I hit you. I was trying to save you.” George keeps staring down at Dream’s name tag. He’s not moving. “Just… Dream, you need to get out of the lava. That potion only lasts five minutes, Dream.” George’s heart is beginning to beat a little faster. Dream isn’t responding. Why isn’t he responding? “Dream? Dream, answer me, you need to--”

George’s breath catches in his throat when he hears the sound of vomiting in the background.

He’s silent. He doesn’t know what to do. Obviously, barking orders at Dream isn’t going to help anything. His hands trembling, he begins making a staircase down the side of the fortress. He starts making a bridge across the lava, to where Dream is sitting at the bottom. He makes a ring around him, so that whenever he comes back, all he has to do is swim up to the surface and climb on. George sits there, waiting, staring at Dream’s unmoving name tag, praying that a ghast doesn’t show up and kill them both.

After a few suffocating minutes, George can hear the rustling of Dream returning to his desk. Dream begins to swim upwards, out of the lava, looking around at the ring of netherrack and climbing on top of it. He’s safe.

George is afraid to speak. “Dream? Dream, are you okay?”

“No.”

George swallows. “No?”

“Puked.”

“Yeah, I...I heard.” George still feels like he can hardly breathe. He watches Dream, who is still standing still. “Let’s...let’s get out of here. Okay?”

“Mhm.”

George leads Dream up the staircase, back into the fortress. “Uhh, you probably need to eat. Do you have food? Eat it, Dream. How low were you?”

Man, George just said a lot of things at once. It takes Dream a second to process it all. He pauses on the staircase, switching to his bread and eating it.

“Half a heart,” he answers.

“Half a heart!? Oh my God. That was too close. Way too close! Ugh. If only that stupid wither skeleton wasn’t there…” George watches Dream until he’s finished eating, then continues on their path. They make it out of the fortress alive, with only a skeleton or two in their way.

George checks his coordinates, then heads in the direction of their portal. He doesn’t like how quiet Dream is, and those one-word answers made him uncomfortable. And what was with the vomiting? When they’re out of the Nether, they’ll definitely need to take a break. George just can’t shake that paralyzing fear he felt when he had to watch helplessly as Dream sat at the bottom of the lava ocean, unsure if Dream was going to make it out of there alive.

It’s too quiet. George tries to make conversation, looking back behind him to make sure Dream’s still following. “Dream, you uh… How are you feeling?”

“Bad.”

“Yeah? Uh...how bad?”

“Bad.” Dream says it again, with more emphasis.

“Um, okay.” George tries to think of something, anything to talk about. “How’s your...cat?”

Dream thinks about this for a moment. A smile grows on his face. “Love my cat.”

Well, Dream didn’t actually answer George’s question, but at least he’s talking. There’s something off-putting about the way Dream is speaking. George realizes this is because Dream is slurring his speech.

“Oh, and aren’t you excited that you reached five million subscribers?” George seems somewhat desperate to keep Dream talking, as if he’ll lose him if he goes quiet again. “And when we’re all done with this challenge, you can upload it, and get loads of views…” George trails off, because he wonders briefly whether or not Dream will cut out the part where he vomited.

“Yeah.” Dream sounds happy at the thought of this.

“And...and when we’re done with this challenge, Dream, you’ll be a genius again.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? When we beat the game, you’ll be smart again.”

“...What?” Dream simply doesn’t understand. He isn’t aware enough to realize what has happened to him anymore. As far as he knows, he's always been this way.


	8. Chapter 8

Dream doesn’t make for much conversation, as they traverse the perilous Nether. He answers most of George’s statements quite simply, often with only a few words, if any. Of course, every little bit of damage he takes along the way always just makes his condition slightly worse. Finally, though, they reach the Nether portal. Freedom, finally, from this horrible dimension that took so much from them.

“Dream! Look!” At this point, George isn’t expecting Dream to respond with much. It still makes his heart ache, but he’s come to the conclusion that the only way to get Dream to act normal is for them to beat the game. “The Nether portal! It’s here! We can get out of here! Yes!” He’s cheering as he normally would in a challenge like this, but George can’t help but sound much more tired than usual.

“Oh,” Dream says, looking out into the distance and spotting the obsidian frame. “Nice!”

“Let’s go let’s go,” George says, bridging over to the plateau the Nether portal is sitting on. He jumps down, then turns around to build a staircase for Dream. “Just wait, Dream. For once in your life, don’t go jumping off an insanely high bridge.”

Jumping seems very tempting right about now. Even with his foggy mind, Dream can tell that he’ll survive that fall. It would be so easy to just jump right off...but he doesn’t. He waits for George to build him a staircase. Once George reaches the top, Dream smiles. That’s George! He’s Dream’s best friend, and he loves him!

“Hi, George!”

“Hello, Dream. I finished the stairs, you can walk down now.” George heads down the stairs himself. Dream follows after him.

“Thanks!”

“No worries, Dream. No worries at all. Come on, let’s get in the portal. It’s just right here.” George climbs up a hill, then waits by the portal frame. Dream follows after him. George notices how, curiously...despite Dream’s injuries, he’s still better than average when it comes to traversing land. He’s still quite fast. Maybe it has to do with parkour being mostly muscle memory and intuition. That’s a good thing, for sure. Maybe it will end up being Dream's honed instinct that will allow him to even survive this challenge.

Through the Nether portal they go. Finally, they are free from that wretched dimension. George was right in his worry, as Dream has changed so much since he went in that portal. George recalls when the worst of his worries was Dream not being able to make a Nether portal correctly. Now, Dream can hardly hold a conversation, and the damage done to him caused him to become so physically ill that he vomited. George sighs, watching Dream’s in-game avatar. Dream is not jumping around or running off like he normally would. Rather, he’s just...standing there, perfectly still.

“Do you think we should take a break? You’re probably...in a lot of pain…” George trails off, muttering his suggestion.

“Alright,” is all Dream responds with.

“Let’s, um, leave the server. Just for now.”

“Okay.”

The two disconnect from the game. George feels a sense of relief wash over him, as Dream is no longer in serious danger. But sitting here, silent, with nothing but a disembodied voice to serve as company, George begins to realize how lonely he is. Yes, Dream is here. But is he really here? While he was talking to him during their trek through the Nether, George couldn’t shake the feeling that Dream just...isn’t all there. George needs some sort of proof, that Dream is here, that he’s alive, that he’s present.

“Want to video call again?” George ventures to ask.

Dream doesn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll, um...let’s leave the call, then I’ll call you on Facetime.”

“Okay.”

George exits the call and gets up out of his chair. His hands are still sweaty, and his legs feel like lead. He practically collapses on his bed, feeling comfort in laying down. He’s so exhausted, but he can only imagine how Dream feels. He calls Dream on Facetime, waiting for him to pick up.

“Dream?”

“Hi, George.” There’s that handsome face again, that face that George hadn’t seen until just yesterday. Dream can’t help but smile at seeing George. That’s his best friend, who loves him.

“Hey, Dream,” George mutters. He then furrows his eyebrows, getting a closer look at Dream. “Wow, Dream, you...look like shit.”

“What?” Dream’s smile falters.

“No, I mean--you don’t look, um, you don’t look like shit, Dream. What I mean is you look…” George bites his lip, trying to find the word to describe the dark circles under Dream’s eyes, the unhealthy paleness of his face, the glazed look in his eyes. “Dream, you look sick.”

“Yeah.” It’s a simple response, but there is much meaning held with the way Dream says it. He knows he looks sick--he feels incredibly ill--but it’s old news to him.

“Ugh, I hate this stupid challenge. It’s killing you, Dream.”

“Don’t say that,” insists Dream. He’s not going to die. Right?

“I wish we could just forfeit. I don’t care about the money anymore. I just...I just want you to be alright, Dream. I just want you back.”

“Mhm.”

“I miss you, Dream. I miss the things you do. They’d...usually annoy me, actually, but it was still fun. I miss talking to you, I miss, actually talking to you. About the game or stupid jokes or anything.”

The things George is saying is making Dream’s chest ache, but he doesn’t understand why. “Minecraft?”

“Yeah, Dream, Minecraft.” George looks away, out at his room, at his computer desk, with the Minecraft title screen still displayed. “Maybe it’s silly, and it’s cliche or whatever, but I think I...really am realizing, you know… Losing you is making me realize how much I care about you.”

Dream doesn’t respond. He’s watching George intently, with those dull eyes of his.

“I should have said it to you more often, I think. I always just thought it was dumb and pointless, to get all...sentimental with friends. But I think I should do it more.” George looks into Dream’s eyes, through the screen of his phone. “Never know when they’ll be gone.”

Dream’s heart is still hurting at the words George is saying and the sincerity of his voice, but it’s still proving difficult for Dream to understand what George means, let alone formulate a response. It takes a moment, but eventually he mutters: “I love you, George.”

George closes his eyes. “I love you too, Dream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter chapter this time! short n sweet! also, thank you all for all of the kudos and comments!! they mean the world to me <3


	9. Chapter 9

Dream stares out his window at the street below. He had hung up his call with George about fifteen minutes ago, because his head was hurting and he needed to rest. Now, he’s waiting for his pizza to arrive. He was hungry, but George didn’t seem to like the idea of letting Dream cook for himself, so George helped him order a pizza. It’s strange, because Dream doesn’t remember ordering pizza being so complicated before.

Now, all he has to do is wait for that car to arrive with his meal. In the meantime, he opens Twitter and starts scrolling through his notifications. He hasn’t been on Twitter in a day, and there’s already so much to read. It’s a bit overwhelming, and it doesn’t help his headache. He starts sending out tweets, from his main account, finding joy in communicating with his fans.

“love you all so much my fans amazing”

That’s a good Tweet, Dream thinks. He’s always teasing his fanbase so much, it’ll be nice for them to receive a nice message from him. He truly is appreciative of their support, after all. Additionally, Dream has found that typing is a hell of a lot easier than talking. Talking, he has to come up with words and sentences on the fly, but when he’s typing he gets more time to think things through, and he even gets his spelling mistakes corrected automatically. It’s fantastic.

Some of the first responses come in, his fans noticing his tweet the second it’s posted. Some of them ask him if he’s drunk. So, he replies to one.

“im not drunk just headache”

Hah, drunk? Dream’s underage. He’d never admit to drinking on Twitter--he could get arrested. Some fans begin to question him. Why is his grammar so off? Why does his head hurt? Dream writes a new Tweet.

“new video soon”

That one gets normal responses. Why are there always so many pictures of George in the replies to his tweets? He doesn’t understand it, but it is nice to see his friend’s face. He smiles, thinking of George, thinking of the kind words he said. He writes a new tweet.

“i love george my best friend”

That one gets some different responses, some joking about the true nature of their relationship, some simply excited about him expressing affection for George. Same old fanbase. Dream looks out the window. Still no pizza.

“waiting pizza” is his next tweet.

The fans are beginning to get suspicious. They’re asking why his head is hurting, if he’s okay. They tell him to drink water, to get some rest. If only they knew the reality of the situation. Dream doesn’t quite understand what has happened himself, but he does know that it’s not just a normal headache. He attempts to explain this to Twitter.

“no im stupid”

Dream hates that word. Never would he use it to describe himself. He was quite the intelligent man, finding great joy in difficult problems and devising improvised, ingenious solutions on the fly. Especially while playing Minecraft! Dream would never consider himself stupid. Sure, he’s done dumb things, but all in all he was incredibly skilled. The fact that he can now say, without a doubt, that he’s an idiot, it just...infuriates him.

“stupid”

“stupid”

“stupid”

He keeps writing that same word over and over, each its own separate tweet. His fans are beginning to get very concerned. What is wrong with Dream? Is he just playing with them, or is something seriously wrong? Then Dream sees it--the words he’s looking for. Someone asked if he has brain damage.

The seemingly magical headband which drains his intelligence whenever he gets hit in Minecraft is far too complicated for Dream to understand. All he knows is that he needs to wear it even though it really hurts, and he needs to beat the game. He couldn’t possibly explain why this is the case, because he doesn’t comprehend it himself. But brain damage, he does understand. He knows what that is, he knows why it happens, and he knows what the result is. It’s as simple as that.

“yes im brain damage” he tweets.

The replies come flooding in. Everyone is concerned, asking him if he’s okay, telling him to go to the hospital, tagging his friends to see if they know about it. Oh, no. Dream is beginning to panic. Is it really that serious? Does he really need to go to the hospital? Some of his fans are claiming that it’s another one of his jokes. They don’t believe him?

“im really brain damage not joking”

More and more of them seem to distrust him. Is this really the reputation that he’s made for himself? If he were to die today, playing this game, like George had said that he might--if his friends announced his untimely death, there’s likely a portion of his fanbase who would still, even after his funeral, believe that it’s all an elaborate hoax. This upsets Dream.

“not lying not joking im really hurt ok not a joke im serious”

Dream watches the replies intensely. Less seem to be distrustful. More seem to be asking if he’s alright, asking if he’s in the hospital. Why do they keep mentioning the hospital? Does he need to go to the hospital? Usually people who get brain damage go to the hospital, but Dream isn’t bleeding, he hasn’t broken anything...the hospitals are so full, he doesn’t really need to go, does he?

“dont want to hospital dont need to head just hurts.”

Argh, and hurt it does indeed. All of this stress and focus, coupled with straining himself to read and write the words, has made his headache worse. He puts his phone down and rubs his eyes. Why does he have to have brain damage? This is the worst.

Sapnap is calling him. But his phone is also vibrating because his pizza delivery guy has arrived. He declines Sapnap’s call--he’ll call him back once he gets his pizza.

He puts on a mask, slips on his shoes, grabs his keys, his phone, his wallet, and heads outside. It’s dark out. What a strange time to be having lunch. Oh, well. His interaction with the pizza delivery person is brief. They don’t realize that anything is wrong with Dream--they have to deliver food to enough folks stoned out of their mind that they don’t even bat an eye. This is good, this makes Dream feel normal, even though the world around him feels like a blur.

He sits down at his kitchen table, setting down the pizza box. He opens it up, and starts eating it. He’s being called by Sapnap again. Now that he has his pizza, he can answer.

“Hi, Sapnap,” says Dream, between bites of pizza.

“Dream! Are you okay?” Sapnap sounds worried.

“No,” Dream responds. Ah, he had forgotten how much harder it is to talk than it is to type. Before he can even think of what to say next, Sapnap is already talking again.

“What do you mean, no? Are you hurt? Are you like, actually hurt?”

“Yes,” Dream answers. He takes another bite of his pizza. Why doesn’t anyone believe him when he says that he’s hurt?

“Oh, jeez. What happened? Are you alright? Is there blood? Ohh...”

Dream wishes Sapnap would stop talking so fast. He swallows his food. “No,” he says once more.

“No blood? No you’re not alright? Do you know what happened?”

“No.” Please, Sapnap, please just stop asking these complicated questions so quickly. It’s making Dream’s headache come back.

“Oh man, oh man… Did you hit your head? That must have been it, right? There’s no blood, though, did you go unconscious?” Sapnap sounds frantic in his concern. Dream frowns.

“What?”

“Ahh, sorry. I’m just very worried. Panicking. I guess you’re really, um…” Sapnap trails off.

Dream takes another bite of his pizza. Man, this pizza is really good. He should tweet about it, when he’s done calling his best friend Sapnap.

“Can you please, Dream,” Sapnap’s voice is softer now. He’s trying to calm down, to speak slowly and carefully. Though, there is a quiver in his voice. “Tell me what happened?”

Dream is quiet for a moment. He swallows his pizza. How could he possibly explain what has happened to him? His head feels like cotton, and he’s having trouble remembering what it is that hurt him like this. When he tries to explain, his explanation comes out fragmented, as if he’s trying to understand it himself.

“Doing Minecraft challenge...with George. When I, uh…” Fuck. This talking thing is harder than he thought. His words keep slurring together, and it feels like he has to force them out of his mouth. “Get hurt. Makes my head hurt.”

Sapnap is quiet for a long while. Then he takes a deep breath.

“So George knows what’s going on?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’ll...go talk to him. I don’t know what’s going on, but just, stay safe, okay Dream?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll call you back, okay? Goodbye,” says Sapnap.

“Goodbye,” echoes Dream. He picks up another slice of pizza, taking a bite out of it. Man, he loves his friend Sapnap. The way Sapnap was so genuinely afraid made Dream worry quite a lot. He reminds himself, as he dips his pizza in some sauce, that things will all be alright once he beats the game. His friends and his fans won’t have to worry anymore once he gets smart again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's right, it's sapnap time!!!


	10. Chapter 10

So that’s it, then. Dream decided it would be a great idea to put on a weird machine sent in by a stranger that is capable of stupefying him, all because he was challenged to.

"God, why is Dream so stupid?" Sapnap huffs.

"I just told you," says George.

"No, no, I mean normal Dream, without the headband. Why is Dream such a prideful dumbass? Who in their right mind would accept a Minecraft challenge that could literally kill them?"

"Dream, I guess." George has a bit of sad laughter to his voice.

"Yeah, good ol Dream… The problem is, now that he's so far gone, you're the one basically doing the challenge for him."

"Yuup," says George. It's a relief to talk solely with Sapnap. Chatting with that shadow of his best friend for too long had caused him to feel entirely awful, so it's nice to get a break.

"I swear, when y'all beat this challenge, I'm going to beat him up." Sapnap is only kind of joking.

"Hah, yeah, me too. Give him a real smacking."

Then, Sapnap's voice gets a bit more serious. "Do you think you'll be able to beat the challenge? Without letting him die? I mean, what happens if you get to the End, but he's so far gone, he can't do it, he can't kill the dragon?"

George is quiet for a moment. "I'm… really just hoping that doesn't happen. If that happens… we're done for. If we can't beat this challenge, Sapnap, he'll be stuck like this."

Sapnap lets out a sigh. "Yeah… Yeah, I know. As much of an egotistical dumbass as he is… I couldn't live without him."

"You and me both."

The two are silent for a few minutes.

"Oh, I finally said it," states George.

"Huh?"

"I told him I loved him. And he showed me his face!"

"Oh, nice! He's totally super handsome, right?"

"Totally," says George, a hint of laughter in his voice.

After a bit more idle conversation, George leaves the call with Sapnap, as Sapnap has things he needs to do. So, George checks Twitter. Sapnap had mentioned that Dream was tweeting, and George had seen them. He figures he may as well respond to the tweet about him.

“love you too dream” George writes this, with a handful of ironic emojis. He’s just giving the fans what they want, but his main incentive is to make sure Dream doesn’t feel bad. George can’t stand reading these strange, poorly written tweets, and it makes him quite uneasy to know that Dream is getting so close to exposing to his fans what is truly wrong with him.

Then, George notices that Dream has made another tweet. It’s a video.

George clicks on it, his heart racing. Oh, thank god. The video is of Dream, but he’s not showing his face. Dream had enough sense not to reveal himself like this. George is relieved.

The video is shot pointing at Dream’s chest and arms, with his head off screen. Dream is at his desk, and his messy room is visible behind him. Strange.

“Hi guys,” says the Dream in the video. George bites his bottom lip. This is bound to end terribly.

“Making a video.” George can’t help but wince at Dream’s difficulty speaking. How could he possibly want to have the whole internet see him like this? “Prove myself.” Oh. That’s why. The fans didn’t believe him, as George can clearly see by the scathing replies on some of his tweets. So, Dream is going to prove to them that he’s telling the truth. Great.

“This, um…” Dream picks up the headband that has done this to him. Oh, so that’s what it looks like. It’s just metal, with a few bits of electronics situated on the side of it. It’s a circle, so he must have to wear it like a crown. It has a small LED on it, which presumably lights up when it’s active. George notices that Dream’s hands are trembling as he holds it--he’s instinctually scared of it. “This thing. Doing a challenge, with George. Hurts me.”

George watches as Dream rubs his thumb on the side of the headband, as if to calm himself down, as he tries to find the words.

“Hurts me when I take damage. Minecraft.” Dream sets the device down on his desk, carefully. “Just Minecraft challenge video. With George.” Though Dream is reassuring his audience that it’s just a challenge, that it’s just a game, George can tell by the way Dream’s voice is quivering that he knows it’s much more serious than that. But Dream doesn’t want his fans to be concerned about him, and he wants to reassure himself, too, that it will all be okay. “Don’t worry.”

George watches, his chest aching, as Dream sits there in silence as he thinks about what to say. Dream kneads his hands together, and takes a shaky breath. “So, that’s all. Don’t worry. Okay? Goodbye.” With that, Dream ends the video.

George scrolls down, to the replies. There’s nothing but worry and concern. They’re telling him that he needs to stop the challenge, that he doesn’t sound good, that he should see a doctor. There are a few memes, though, people commenting on how hilarious it will be to see Dream fail at playing Minecraft. George clenches his fists. Sure, it may sound hilarious, for the once-genius to mess up on the easiest tasks, but actually watching it happen is just...heartbreaking. George closes Twitter, then closes his eyes. They need to get this over with. He needs to get Dream back.


	11. Chapter 11

Dream answers George's call. He has finished his lunch break, and now it's time to get back to work. Though Dream really, really doesn't want to put that headband back on his head. So, he'll stall for time.

"Hi George," he says, his voice soft.

"Hello, Dream." George responds. He still isn't comfortable with speaking to Dream while he's like this. He just doesn't know how he should act. "Are you, um, ready to beat the Ender Dragon?"

"No," says Dream. But before George can respond, he adds in a different suggestion. "Let's do IQ test."

This catches George off guard. "What?"

Some of Dream's fans were suggesting it, when they saw his video. Dream found an IQ test online, and it seems legit enough. "Yeah, IQ test. I'll do it."

"..." George feels a sense of despair at this suggestion. He realizes that he doesn't want to know what Dream's IQ is--it will hurt his heart too much to know. But Dream wants to do it, and when he's set on something, he'll do it. "Fine, okay…"

Dream smiles. "Okay." So, he starts the test. It's hard enough to read the questions, but it's even harder to answer them. Dream feels as though this test is rigged, that they made it too difficult on purpose. He sounds frustrated. Then, he takes in a sharp gasp.

"What, what is it?" asks George, anxiety churning in his stomach.

Dream sounds like he can hardly breathe. "45."

George lets out an anxious laugh of astonishment. "What? You're joking. That's not possible. Dream, that can't be true." George is desperate.

"45." Dream repeats himself, though he can't believe it himself. He recalls taking an IQ test in the past--what was it he got? Something around 120. Fear is clawing at Dream's chest. How could he have lost so much? He's so close to 0, now, what happens when he goes too low? Does he just die? Dream can feel tears welling up in his eyes.

"45," George repeats, in disbelief. "That means you're…" He does a quick Google search. "Moderately Intellectually Disabled. Dream!" On one hand, George refuses to believe this, because he couldn't imagine this fate being thrust upon his dear friend. But on the other hand… he can totally believe it. With the way Dream has been talking and writing, and the strange, vacant look in his eye, George can certainly believe that he's this far gone.

"I know I know I know," Dream sputters, sobs beginning to rise and fall in his chest. "I know…" His moans are filled with despair. Why did he have to take that damn test? He shouldn't have. He doesn't want to accept the results. He just wants… "Wanna be smart again, George, please." He wants this horrible nightmare of a challenge to be over.

"Woah, um, Dream, okay! Please calm down. I know, I'm, I'm sad too, but we need to get back to the challenge, if...if we're going to get you back. Okay? So just...come on, Dream, it's okay, please stop crying."

Dream takes a few shaky breaths, wiping his eyes with his hands. He nods, even though George can’t see him. “Okay. Okay.” He clicks on his Minecraft shortcut, launching the game. He slips the headband onto his head, fear causing his fingers to tremble. “Ready,” he mutters, as he enters their server, starting up his recording software.

George enters right after. He looks around to get his bearings. Right, they had just returned from the Nether. They still need enderpearls...but at least they have the blaze rods. It’s not the fastest way, but it’s safe--they will return to the village they found at the start and trade until they’ve gotten enough pearls.

“Come on, this way,” George leads Dream in the direction of that village. Dream is slow with his movement, incredibly cautious, afraid to take off running and end up falling into a ravine. George looks back at Dream, noticing him going so slowly. Usually, Dream is the one in the lead. George frowns. “Dream, come on, you can go faster. We need to get there before night comes. I’ll let you know if there are any, like, caves or lava pools, so you won’t have to worry about falling in one.”

“Ok.” Dream sounds nervous, but he picks up the pace. They arrive at the village, and George begins harvesting beds and logs, instructing Dream to do the same. George turns the logs into planks, and the planks into sticks, and trades for emeralds. He works up to the enderpearl trade, and with just a couple more stacks of sticks, they've done it. They have enough enderpeals.

Dream had been sitting and watching as George made the trades. He simply doesn't understand villager trading, and makes no attempt to.

"Alright," says George, to a rather silent Dream. "I've gotten all the pearls we need. Let me just...get the blaze powder…" George crafts an eye of ender. "Okay, there we go." He throws it, looking around in the sky to see where it went. Dream looks up at it as well, running forward to catch it before it hits the ground.

"Caught it!" he exclaims.

"Good job, now let's go." George leads the way. He has no idea how far they're supposed to go. He did get extra eyes of ender, just in case, but he feels a pang in his chest when he recalls all the times Dream had instructed him on how to properly locate a stronghold. He switches to 2nd person view, watching Dream run behind him. He has a feeling that Dream won't be much help when it comes to finding the stronghold. He switches back to 1st person, letting out a small sigh. "Let's just...run a long way, I guess, then throw another one."

"Okay," answers Dream. He is more than willing to let George take the lead; his head still hurts, and George seems to know what he's doing better than Dream does.

They run along great fields, they sleep in the middle of nowhere to pass through the night, and they sail across oceans. The stronghold is pretty far. They manage to avoid most damage along the way, except for a skeleton who had shot at Dream from behind a tree, and a flaming zombie that had emerged from a cave. George keeps thinking about that number, 45. How low is it now? How much longer do they have?

Suddenly, Dream goes still. "Stop," he says.

George slows down, then turns around to face him. "What? What is it?"

"Throw it," commands Dream.

"..." George can't believe that Dream could be able to mathematically locate the stronghold in this condition, but he does what his friend tells him to do.

Dream watches the eye of ender fly into the air, then fall down to the ground. He looks back the way they had come. He opens his f3 menu--that was a mistake, because he still can't understand it, so he closes it. He doesn't need it, anyway. He knows exactly where the stronghold is. He backtracks a ways, heading in a slightly skewed direction.

"...Dream," George begins, following him. "We don't have time for this. Let's just keep going until we find it with the eyes." But George knows that they're running low on eyes of ender. If they could dig straight down to the stronghold, that would save them loads of time. But does Dream even know what he's doing?

He seems to think that he does. He continues forward a little more, looking around one last time, before jumping in place, punching the ground. "Here," he says, with certainty. "Here."

"Okay, Dream." George doesn't sound like he believes him, but he starts digging down anyway. He brings Dream down with him, so he digs a staircase rather than straight down. He couldn't risk everything just for a little convenience.

George is getting lower and lower, and his hope is beginning to dwindle. "Dream, it's not here, let's just go up and--"

"Shhh," Dream shushes him. The two are silent. Then, they hear a bat squeaking.

Immediately, George starts mining towards it. "Where is it? Where is it?" Until...he breaks through to stone bricks. They found it.

Dream gasps. "Yes! Yes! Yesss!" He's enthusiastic. Somehow, despite his difficulty thinking, he was able to deduce the location of the stronghold. His intelligence may be in shambles, but his intuition, his wisdom from experience--those aren't gone at all. This makes Dream overjoyed. Maybe he does have a chance at beating his thing, after all.


	12. Chapter 12

Given his incredible success at locating the stronghold, Dream is feeling quite confident at the moment. He and George run through the cavernous structure, fighting any mob in their way. Dream does take damage from a few stray skeletons' arrows, but he doesn't let it phase him. Even still, though he is confident that he will beat the challenge, he is increasingly aware of how close he is to being unable to play the game. It feels like he's being slowly submerged into a tub of viscous liquid, and sooner or later, he'll drown.

A dim light shines at the end of a hallway.

"Yes! It's the portal room! Come on, Dream, this way!" George hurries through the doorway, turning back to watch as Dream follows him. They're so close. All they have to do is kill the Ender Dragon--a task they have accomplished time and time again--and Dream will be restored.

"Um, yeah!" Dream follows after. He's not so sure if he's up for a boss battle right now, as he is feeling somewhat dizzy. But he's determined, and it's been long enough. He needs to beat the game.

But they aren't done with the stronghold just yet. The silverfish spawner begins steadily producing nasty little silverfish, which begin to swarm the two players.

"Ah!" Dream exclaims, jumping back. He starts smacking the silverfish with his pickaxe, then switching to his sword. Of course, the more he tries to fight them, the more silverfish come slithering out of the walls and falling from the ceiling as the stone brick crumbles around them. Dream is swarmed, the tiny monsters hitting him repeatedly. Though it's not enough to kill him, it's still damage, and his head is met with a burst of sharp pain as the creatures continue their onslaught. "Help!"

"Dream! Run! Run, Dream!" George is panicking. He has to dodge silverfish himself, but he manages to scoop up the lava nearby and begin dousing the hordes of silverfish with it. "Dream be careful! I'm going to kill them with lava!" Don't hit Dream. Whatever you do, don't hit Dream with the lava. George lets out a small whimper due to the immense, crushing fear that these silverfish will be the death of Dream.

Finally, after minutes of struggling, running, yelling, and frantically placing lava, the silverfish are dead. George feels like he just participated in a gruesome circus performance, what with how much hopping around and frantically dodging mobs he had done. He somehow managed to avoid hitting Dream with the lava, and it is likely due to this fact that Dream was able to survive.

It's quite a relief to Dream that the pain has stopped. He had quit paying attention to the game he was playing, his hands covering his head, in an attempt to relieve himself of the pain, rather than resting on his keyboard and mouse. He rubs his face, opening his eyes to look at his screen. Slowly, with trembling fingers, he grabs his mouse, finds the steak in his inventory, and eats it.

George lets out the breath he was holding. "Dream!! Dream, are you okay? Please, oh please be okay. Those stupid--silverfish!! I hate those things!!" George is furious, frantic, and fearful. He jumps in front of Dream, looking his model right in the face as Dream eats his steak.

Dream is surprised by the realization that he can't talk. "Mm, mhm, yeah," is all he is able to get out, to soothe George's worries. But, even though he can mostly understand what George said to him, he can't properly formulate a response. He doesn't know what to say, or how to say it. This should fill him with fear, but, somehow, he doesn't feel much of anything.

"How low were you? God, that was too close. Oh, Dream, how are we meant to do this? How are you meant to kill the Ender Dragon? It's actually impossible. I don't…" George trails off, because his voice is starting to crack. He's beginning to cry. What will he do if he loses Dream forever?

"Mmm," is all Dream is able to say to comfort his friend. He takes his hand off of his keyboard to rub his head again. What's wrong with him, why does his head hurt so badly?

"Dream, can you even speak?" George's attempt at holding back his tears just makes him sound angry. He is angry--at the fact that this is happening, at whoever invented that horrible device.

"Nnh… No." Dream's hand clenches his mouse. What has happened to him? Why is it so... difficult?

"Oh. Jesus Christ…" George covers his mouth with his hand. Dream can't even speak? How is he supposed to beat the Ender Dragon? George feels a heavy pressure on his chest, as if the weight of the world is crushing him. Will they be able to do this? He wants to stop, to take a break, to video call Dream and see his smiling face one more time--but it's too late now, isn't it? Dream can't talk. What's the point?

"Mmh." Dream's heart is aching as well as his head, though he isn't quite sure why. He walks around in the portal room, too afraid of the lava pools to try to do idle parkour. He looks around at the holes in the ceiling and walls that silverfish came out of, shuddering as he remembers the painful onslaught he faced. After they beat the game, he never wants to play Minecraft again.

"Dream, I...I need a break. Just a few minutes. To get water. S-so...disconnect from the server, for now, okay? Get some water, or a snack, or go to the bathroom, or...wh-whatever you need to do." George's voice is quiet.

Dream understands this. Just a little break, then they will go beat the game. "Mmhm." He disconnects from his server. Once he's out of the game, he blinks. He looks around his room. Oh, he had forgotten that he was in his room. He had been so focused on the game. He takes off his headphones and the headband, running his hands through his dirty-blonde hair.

He's pretty thirsty. He gets up from his desk, carefully walking to his kitchen. The whole world feels like a blur, but he manages to find a glass and his sink. He fills his cup up with water, guzzling it down. God, he's thirsty. He finishes his water and carelessly drops his glass in the sink once he's finished with it. He flinches when the glass shatters. "Oh."

Turning away from the mess in the sink, Dream grabs a bag of chips from his pantry. He returns to his room, sitting back at his desk and eating chips. George is still offline. He decides to message him. He can't seem to figure out what he should say, though. He's not illiterate, he can mostly understand the words on his screen, but...he just can't formulate a sentence. So, he opts to send George some emojis, instead. Emojis are easy. He knows exactly what those mean.

Dream sends George a smiling emoji, a blushing emoji, a handshake emoji, a hug emoji...he sends his friend a dozen emojis expressing how much he cares about him. He includes a heart at the end, and sends it. There, that's good.

What about his other friends? Dream tries to remember. He's certain he has more friends...his eyes drift to one of the avatars on his recently messaged friends list. Sapnap! Of course!

Dream sends Sapnap a collection of similar emojis. Although George doesn't respond, Sapnap responds immediately.

"Dream, are you okay? Thanks for the emojis." Sapnap adds a heart emoji to his message as well. This makes Dream smile.

"no" is all Dream sends Sapnap as a response. Yes and no are easy for Dream to produce, compared to other words.

"What do you mean? Are you guys almost done beating the game? Do you think you'll be able to do it? I really hope it goes well...it makes me so sad to see you like this, Dream." is what Sapnap responds with.

Dream stares at Sapnap's message for a while, taking far too long to comprehend what it says. He doesn't know how to answer Sapnap's question, and he still doesn't quite get what he means. So, he sends a single emoji in response, a face with a slanted mouth. That's all he can say.


	13. Chapter 13

Dream slips the headband onto his head once more. He feels afraid of the device, his hands trembling as he puts it on. He doesn’t know what it is, or what it does, he just knows that it hurts. But he also knows that he doesn’t have a choice--he has to wear it, he has to beat the game. He just has to.

He puts his headphones on after that, adjusting his microphone so that he can be heard properly. Not that he can talk, anyway. He clicks on George’s avatar, then calls him. He’s ready. He wants to get this over with.

George answers him. His voice is heavy with exhaustion. He had spent the past half hour crying, devastated by what has happened and fearful for what’s to come. But when Dream calls him, he answers, even though he still hasn’t responded to the strange emojis Dream had sent him.

“Hello, Dream,” George says to his friend, quiet. He isn’t expecting Dream to say much in return. “Are you ready to beat the game?”

“Mmhm,” says Dream. He just wants to get this over with. He wants to be able to speak again, to have fun with George again--he wants to be able to think again.

“Then... let’s go already.” George double checks his inventory, to make certain he has everything he needs. The two had set beds up outside of the portal, even though George isn’t entirely sure what would happen if Dream died. Dream watches George, patiently waiting. After being hunted down by him countless times, George finds Dream’s blank green avatar to be menacing in nature, and its ominous aura is only heightened by the deafening silence. He feels unnerved, as if he’s being stared at by a ghost. He shudders and steps up the staircase to the portal, staring down into it. He closes his eyes for a moment, to gather himself, then steps in.

George and Dream are transported to The End. There’s no going back now. Either they beat the game or they die in here. Either Dream is restored back to his former self, or he’s gone forever. It all comes down to these final minutes.

George isn’t going to take any chances.

“Oh, we spawned underground, perfect.” George hops around, looking up at the ceiling, then down at Dream. “Dream. You just need to get the last hit to get the achievement. So, I’m going to just, er…” George starts tunneling up, out of the small room. “Leave you in here. Okay?” George turns around to face Dream, but Dream has started ascending the tunnel as well.

“No, stop,” says George. “Stay here, Dream. I’m going to block you in, and that way, you’ll be safe from the endermen, and the dragon, and everything.”

Dream is puzzled. He takes a step back, looking up at George as he blocks in the exit. He’s supposed to just sit here and do nothing? That’s so boring! He’s supposed to defeat the Ender Dragon, all he has to do is shoot the towers and do...something with beds? It will take George ages to beat the dragon without his help. Dream can’t just sit here as if he’s useless while his friend does all the work for him.

But when Dream tries to protest, all he can do is grumble. He can’t speak, he can’t figure out how to get out of this endstone prison, and he...probably shouldn’t go out there after all. It’s safe in here, at least. Dream starts jumping around, idly passing time as George yelps in shock and groans in frustration as he attempts to knock out the dragon’s towers. He takes his hand off of his mouse to run his hands through his hair, careful not to disturb the device on his head. He can’t wait until he gets to take it off for good.

Sooner or later, George’s urgent voice alerts Dream. “Okay, Dream! It’s got one hit left!” Oh yeah, the dragon. Dream had been enjoying just being in a voice call with his friend George, and it had taken George so long to get it down to low enough health that Dream had nearly forgotten what they were doing entirely. “Come on, I’ll dig you out, go up there!” George starts digging a staircase for Dream to climb up. Seeing George break into his safety box makes Dream uneasy, and he is reminded of how much danger he will have to face once he steps foot on the surface.

“It’ll be okay, just, don’t look at the endermen, don’t jump at the dragon, just go stand right beneath it like you always do and hit it with your sword. That’s it. It’s easy.” George sounds exhausted, likely due to how tense he was all throughout his time fighting the dragon. And although he tells Dream that it’s easy, he knows that, given the condition Dream is in, this will not, by any means, be easy.

Slowly, cautiously, Dream heads out of the ground. He looks around, and of course he immediately causes a nearby enderman to become aggressive.

“Ah!” Dream shouts in surprise as the enderman comes sprinting towards him. “AH!” He shouts again when the mob starts attacking. Endermen are no joke, and if it weren’t for George staying by his side, killing the enderman for him, Dream could have been hurt much, much worse.

Dream groans. It’s becoming too much to handle. He’s having trouble making sense of where he is in the game. Once more, he enrages an enderman by accident. As it runs to Dream, pummeling him mercilessly, he can’t do anything to defend himself. Once more, it is George who protects Dream. George is talking to him, but his words are becoming harder to understand.

“Dream! Stop! Looking! At the endermen!” George is desperate. Is this the end? They’re so close. He’s so unbelievably close to getting his friend back. This can’t be where they lose. “Look at the ground! Keep your cursor on the ground! Do not look at the endermen!”

Dream lets out a whine. At first, George can’t tell if Dream actually understood what he had said. But he does look at the ground, keeping his head bowed low to the endstone so as to avoid the endermens’ eyes.

Dream’s mind is a mix of confusion, panic, and pain. Even still, he knows what he needs to do. He needs to get to the fountain and he needs to hit the dragon. Then he will win the game, and everything will be okay. He repeats these to himself in his mind, holding on to his need to succeed despite all else. He’s a speedrunner. He’s done this a billion times. He can hit the dragon one more time, surely he can. Fighting off the heavy fog encroaching on his consciousness, Dream begins walking towards the bedrock fountain.

Suddenly, the dragon shoots dragon’s breath at the ground in front of him. He is startled, unsure of how to react to the strange purple particle effects beneath him.

“Dream! Move! Move! Get out of there! Dream!” George is screaming at him. Dream looks back at him, having flinched at his yelling. He backs away from the puddle of particles, but not before taking a few serious hits. George can hear Dream choke on his breath due to the pain.

“Dream? Please, Dream, stay with me…” George’s heart is aching as he stares at Dream’s avatar. He’s gone perfectly still, as Dream is still trying to catch his bearings. George can hear a moan. A sob. Is this killing him? Is Dream still there? George feels disconnected from his body, panic making his hands feel cold. He glances at the sky--good, the dragon isn’t going to bother them again. He returns his gaze to Dream, and after a few more heart-wrenching moments, Dream looks back down at the ground, and continues walking.

“Yes! Yes! Thank God! Keep going, come on!” It doesn’t matter to Dream what George is saying. He can hardly comprehend it. What matters is that he’s almost there, he’s almost at the gray structure. He watches as the dragon begins to descend. “Yes!” George is shouting at him, still. Doesn’t George know that Dream can’t understand him? “Wait, wait for it, and--go! Go Dream! She’s down! Go hit that dragon and kill it!” 

Dream puts his hand on his face, closing his eyes. Why does his head hurt so much? He feels as though he might puke again. Either that, or he could fall asleep any second. That heavy black fog is descending further upon his mind, and it’s making it harder to focus on the colors on his screen and the sounds his friend is making. He’s so tired, he just wants to go to sleep. But he keeps his middle finger planted firmly on the W key. He opens his eyes again, and blinks as he tries to make sense of what he’s seeing. He’s right next to the fountain. Carefully, he climbs inside of it, standing beneath the dragon. The massive size of the dragon impresses Dream, and he feels amazed watching it beat its huge wings. His friend is saying something to him, but his words don’t make it across. Dream knows what he needs to do, anyway. He pulls out his sword, moving closer to the beast’s head. Then, he starts swinging. He misses, at first, but then his attacks connect. He hits the dragon once, then a second time, and then, finally, at long last…

The dragon is slain.


	14. Chapter 14

Dream backs up and out of the fountain, staring up at the dragon as it rises into the air in a beam of purple light as it crumbles to pieces. It's the most beautiful thing Dream has ever seen.

"LET'S GOOOOOO" George is screaming in enthusiasm, at Dream's victory. He runs over to Dream, standing beside him. "Yes! Yes! You did it! You actually did it!"

Dream doesn't pay attention to what George is saying, because he still can't understand him. But soon enough, he will. As the dragon crumbles into nothingness, Dream begins to feel a very strange sensation. It's painful, but not in the way it was when he took damage. It mostly just feels uncomfortable, as if someone is messing around inside his head. What is really happening is that the headband is repairing the connections it had severed.

It is a rather unpleasant experience. Dream takes his hands off the keyboard to hold his head tight, his eyes shut. "Ngh!" he groans.

"Dream?" A hint of concern returns to George's voice. Is it working? Is he healing? Is Dream finally returning to normal?

"Hh-" Dream can't respond while his head is being repaired. He can't even think. He squeezes his jaw shut to endure the pain, until finally… 

The fog in his head has dissipated. The device gives a little beep to signify that it's finished. Dream catches his breath, feeling a sense of anxiety, and then a great joy welling up in his chest. He can think again. He's back. It feels like a breath of fresh air after an eternity spent in a dark, smoggy cavern. Finally, the world around him makes sense again. Finally, he can speak.

"George?" Dream's voice is quiet and raspy.

"Dream?" George dares not speak another word, frozen to the spot in anticipation.

"George!!" Dream starts to laugh in relief. "I'm back, George! We did it! Ohhh, my GOD."

"Really? You're back!? Yes! Yes yes, let's go!!" George had faced so much worry and stress, trying to protect Dream while he only got worse and worse, and to have it finally be over, to have Dream finally return to him…it's enough to make him want to cry tears of joy and relief.

"Oh my God--" Dream is astounded by the feeling of having control over his own mind once more. Finally, he's not an idiot anymore. His suffering is over.

He laughs. "I am never, EVER doing that again. That was--that was the worst experience I have ever had in my entire life." He still can't believe that he did it. He then realizes that he's still recording. "Wh--I was recording!?"

"Yes, the whole time."

"What! I have to go back and watch it! To see what happened!” He runs his hand through his dirty-blonde hair, trying to recall what happened while his mind was in shambles. “...I don't even remember any of it, basically. It's all just...a blur."

George gives a sad chuckle. "Yeah, I...wouldn't be surprised. You couldn't even talk at the end."

"Seriously? Man. I can't believe I actually made it. Well, we made it. Oh man, I bet you really had to carry me the whole game, huh."

George is still quite mad at Dream for this fact. Having to support Dream the entire game was definitely the most stressful experience he’s had in his life, as he truly was struggling to prevent his best friend from becoming braindead. But...then again, when they started this challenge, they didn't realize that they were unable to forfeit. If they had known that Dream’s only options were to beat the game or to die, they wouldn’t have started it to begin with. George supposes he can scold Dream later. For now, he's just happy to have him back. "Yeah," is all he says.

"Wow. This was...by far, the hardest, and worst, and most painful challenge we've ever done," Dream says with a small chuckle. He isn't exaggerating. His head still aches from being fucked with so much. It will probably hurt for quite a while, and he hasn't even considered whether there will be any long term effects on his brain's health after such abuse of the poor thing. "Let's never, ever do this again."

George laughs, though his laugh isn’t too happy. “Totally. Never ever. You should burn that thing.”

“Yeah. Yeah, maybe I will. God. I’m--I can’t even,” Dream takes a breath, trying to gather his thoughts. His heart is beating so fast, he’s so excited. “I can’t even begin to express how glad I am that I made it. That we beat the game. I’m back, George, I’m really back!”

George can tell by the tone of Dream’s voice that he’s grinning. Come to think of it, George would really like to see Dream’s face again, to see the light returned to his eyes. He stops jumping around aimlessly, looking over at Dream’s avatar, which is sitting on top of a tree at spawn.

“Hey, Dream, what if we, uh, face timed? Now that you’re...back and all.”

“What? No, dude, just because I’m back doesn’t mean I’m going to do a face reveal. I mean, well…” Dream reconsiders. He was so close to actually dying, there, maybe it would be a good idea to facetime George. It had never occurred to him before now that he could die before George saw his face, and he doesn’t want to risk it. “Maybe, maybe we could, actually--”

George laughs, a little, in disbelief. “What, do you not remember? We facetimed earlier. While you were. Um. Hurt. We video called, Dream, I actually saw your face.”

Dream goes quiet. Thinking back to it now, he does remember it. He had facetimed George. George has seen his face. “What. What!”

“Yeah, we did, we called. Twice, actually. And…” George trails off, thinking for a moment. “I don’t know if you remember this, but when we called I told you that I love you. ...Because I do.”

“Haha, well,” says Dream. “That’s nice. I love you too, George, you know that. But, yes, I think I remember that happening, now. I was… I was so happy to hear that, you know. It honestly...kept me going.”

“Yeah.” George nods to himself. “Yeah. Well, do you want to call again? Now that you’re back?”

“Totally, George, may as well, you’ve already seen my face, haha.” Dream takes one last look at the Minecraft world that caused him so much pain, then disconnects. It’s finally over. He beat the challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, he finally did it!! but don't go away too soon, folks! the fanfic isn't over! there's a bit of post-game stuff i'd like to explore, so expect a few more chapters of catharsis and conclusion! and again, thank you all soooo much for the kind words and comments, they all mean so much to me! i've never posted serious fanfic online before, and the support i've gotten means the world to me <3 <3 <3 thanks for sticking around!


	15. Chapter 15

Dream shuts off his computer, getting up from his desk. He takes a minute to process everything that had just happened. He had ended his call with George, as they’re going to start video calling on their phones instead. Before he does that, though, Dream needs a second to think.

He can think again. He can really, really think again. It feels so good. He had quite honestly forgotten what it felt like, when he was lost in the murky fog of his impaired mind. He shakes his head as he looks down at his desk. If he had failed the challenge, what would have become of him? Would he have been stuck like that, forever? Fear claws at Dream’s stomach as he imagines how much his life would have been ruined, by something as simple as a stray arrow or missed parkour jump. He realizes how incredibly lucky he must have been to have survived.

“im going to take a minute to get some water, ill call you when im ready” Dream messages George.

“Alright Dream,” George responds, seconds later. “Take your time, I’ll be here. I’m going to let Sapnap know that you’re okay.”

“cool, thanks!” Dream turns off his phone, sliding it into his pocket. His eyes move from his desk to his room. Faint memories of laying in his bed the night before, his head spinning, prick at the edge of his consciousness. He heads through his door, which had been left open, into his kitchen. A half-eaten pizza is waiting for him. Great, that will be dinner. Dream furrows his eyebrows as he struggles to remember ordering the pizza, but the memory is hard to find. He must have gone outside to get it from the delivery person, even in the state he was in. Good thing he didn’t get hurt.

Dream goes to the sink, to get a glass of water, and notices the shattered glass in the sink. He had been so startled when it happened--this he does remember. He simply let go of the glass before setting it down, and it burst into shards. It’s lucky that he didn’t cut himself with it. He fills up a new glass and drinks it, setting the empty cup on the counter rather than dropping it in the sink.

Looking at his kitchen feels different than it did before this whole mess. In the evidence strewn about, and in the vaguest reaches of his memory, the time he spent without his mind linger. He’ll never be able to truly forget the traumatic experience he had endured, and neither will George. This horrible thing they went through may bring them closer together, but it may also push them apart. Dream is really hoping that it won’t be the latter. He knows that it’s his fault for putting George through all of this.

Seeking to distract himself, Dream opens Twitter, immediately bombarded with an onslaught of notifications.

“Ah, shit,” he mutters, sitting down at his kitchen table. Of course he had to tweet while he was injured, of course. Somewhat afraid of what he’ll find, Dream heads to his profile to scroll through the tweets he’s made.

They’re all so...strange. They seem like something he’d tweet while he was drunk, or upon waking in the middle of the night. And that video of himself, it’s just...unnerving. He only faintly remembers even recording that video, so it’s as if he’s watching a stranger control his body without him knowing. He can hear it in his own voice, in that video, the way talking had become a challenge. He remembers it being hard, but he had no idea that he sounded that bad.

He checks the replies to his tweets, the majority of the responses overflowing with support. There’s already a tag trending which urges him to get well soon. Dream’s heart feels full, full of appreciation for his fans. They deserve to know that he’s alright. He tries to ignore the creeping anxieties of how they would have reacted if he hadn’t beat the game, and focuses instead on writing his tweet.

“Thank you guys for all of your concern, I’m happy to say that I beat the challenge and I’m feeling a lot better. Will post more updates later. Might make a video out of it, we’ll see. I haven’t seen the footage yet.”

Most of his fans are expressing relief and joy at the fact that he’s okay. Others, though, are hooked on the prospect of getting a video out of all this. A chance to see Dream, the fabled Minecraft speedrunner of 1,000 IQ plays, fumble about with no clue what he’s doing? It would be a content goldmine, Dream’s sure of it, but...the actual experience, going through it, the real, genuine pain he had felt...would it be right to just make those horrible experiences into a video for entertainment?

God, all of this worrying is too much for a man who just regained control over his mind. His head still hurts. He can worry about it later. For now, he’d better get back to George. He’s been waiting long enough to talk to his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's right baby, it's time to wrap it up! still have a few more chapters planned, we're not done yet! chapters will probably be fairly slow to come out due to university taking up most of my time, but bear with me and i'll get it finished soon enough! <3
> 
> if you've been here from the beginning, i recommend giving it another read-over to remind yourself of all that has happened! ^^


End file.
